Enzymatic synthesis of structure-free DNA with pseudo-complementary properties.

Authors

Georges Lahoud, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Thomas Jefferson UniversityFollow
Victor Timoshchuk, TriLink BioTechnologiesFollow
Alexandre Lebedev, TriLink BioTechnologiesFollow
Miguel de Vega, Instituto de Biologia Molecular 'Eladio Viñuela' (CSIC), Centro de Biología Molecular 'Severo Ochoa' (CSIC-UAM), Campus Universidad Autonóma
Margarita Salas, Instituto de Biologia Molecular 'Eladio Viñuela' (CSIC), Centro de Biología Molecular 'Severo Ochoa' (CSIC-UAM), Campus Universidad Autonóma
Khalil Arar, Sigma-ProligoFollow
Ya-Ming Hou, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Thomas Jefferson UniversityFollow
Howard Gamper, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Thomas Jefferson UniversityFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

6-1-2008

Comments

This article has been peer reviewed. It was published in: Nucleic Acids Research.

Volume 36, Issue 10, June 2008, Pages 3409-3419.

The published version is available at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2425472/. DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkn209

Copyright © 2008 The Author(s)

Abstract

Long single-stranded DNAs and RNAs possess considerable secondary structure under conditions that support stable hybrid formation with oligonucleotides. Consequently, different oligomeric probes can hybridize to the same target with efficiencies that vary by several orders of magnitude. The ability to enzymatically generate structure-free single-stranded copies of any nucleic acid without impairing Watson-Crick base pairing to short probes would eliminate this problem and significantly improve the performance of many oligonucleotide-based applications. Synthetic nucleic acids that exhibit these properties are defined as pseudo-complementary. Previously, we described a pseudo-complementary A-T couple consisting of 2-aminoadenine (nA) and 2-thiothymine (sT) bases. The nA-sT couple is a mismatch even though nA-T and A-sT are stable base pairs. Here we show that 7-alkyl-7-deazaguanine and N(4)-alkylcytosine (where alkyl = methyl or ethyl) can be used in conjunction with nA and sT to render DNA largely structure-free and pseudo-complementary. The deoxynucleoside triphosphates (dNTPs) of these bases are incorporated into DNA by selected mesophilic and thermophilic DNA polymerases and the resulting primer extension products hybridize with good specificity and stability to oligonucleotide probes composed of the standard bases. Further optimization and characterization of the synthesis and properties of pseudo-complementary DNA should lead to an ideal target for use with oligonucleotide probes that arelength.

Recommended Citation

Lahoud, Georges; Timoshchuk, Victor; Lebedev, Alexandre; de Vega, Miguel; Salas, Margarita; Arar, Khalil; Hou, Ya-Ming; and Gamper, Howard, "Enzymatic synthesis of structure-free DNA with pseudo-complementary properties." (2008). Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Faculty Papers. Paper 66.
https://jdc.jefferson.edu/bmpfp/66

PubMed ID

18448471